Nouns as verbs – not all bad

Being ‘platformed‘ is indeed a terrible thing, even for an unreliable British train carriage. A while back we ranted about software being ‘architected.’ But nouns turning into verbs (verbifying, perhaps? Maybe not) is just part of linguistic development. Think ‘chair’ or ‘contact’, both of which are well established; or ‘impact’, which has attained noun status more recently and still sounds awkward to some.

The true test is whether a newly ‘verbified’ noun makes a contribution to the language; that is, improving communication in a way that’s acceptable to everyone. Assuming software architects do something different to, say, developers or designers, the perhaps that particular verbification is justified. Being ‘platformed’ or invited to ‘deplane’ don’t quite seem to pass the test at the moment.

And although ‘to impact’ is now well and truly established, especially in relation to financial performance and the like, it doesn’t pass the test either. Does it really mean anything more than ‘affect’? Perhaps it’s popular because we just like a little more drama in our language.